Treatise on Taxes and Contributions [27]
that have strayed from ever returning again, and by tearing off as well the skins as the wool of those that are scabbed; whereas Almighty God will rather require the blood even of them that have been devoured, from the shepheards themselves. 26. Wherefore if the Minister should lose part of the Tythes of those whom he suffers to dissent from the Church, (the defector not saving, but the State wholly gaining them) and the defector paying some pecuniary Mulct for his Schisme, and withall himself defraying the charge of his new particular Church and Pastorage, me thinks the burthen would be thus more equally born. 27. Besides, the judicious world do not believe our Clergy can deserve the vaste preferments they have, onely because they preach, give a better accompt of Opinions concerning Religion then others, or can express their conceptions in the words of the Fathers, or the Scriptures, etc. Whereas certainly the great honour we give them, is for being patterns of holiness, for shewing by their own self-denials, mortifications, and austerities, that 'tis possible for us to imitate them in the precepts of God; for if it were but for their bare Pulpit-discourses, some men might think there is ten thousand times as much already printed as can be necessary, and as good as any that ever hereafter may be expected. And it is much suspected, that the Discipline of the Cloisters hath kept up the Roman Religion, which the Luxury of the Cardinals and Prelates might have destroyed. 28. The substance therefore of all we have said in this discourse concerning the Church is, that it would make much for its peace, if the Nursery of Ministers be not too bigg, that Austerities in the Priests lives would reconcil them to the people; and that it is not unrasonable, that when the whole Church suffers by the defection of her Members, that the Pastours of it by bearing a small part should be made sensible of the loss; the manner and measures of all which I leave unto those unto whom it belongs. 29. Concerning Penalties and Penal Laws I shall adde but this, that the abuse of them is, when they are made not to keep men from sin, but to draw them into punishment; and when the Executors of the keep them hid until a fault be done, and then shew them terrible to the poor immalcious offender: Just like Centiels, who never shew men, the advertisements against pissing near their Guards, till they have catcht them by the coats for the forfeiture the claim.
Chapter 11
Of Monopolies and Offices
Monopoly (as the word signifies) is the sole selling power, which whosoever hath can vend the commodity whereupon he hath this power, either qualified as himself pleases, or at what price he pleaseth, or both, within the limits of his Commission. 2. The great example of a Monopoly is the King of France his Gabel upon Salt, whereby he sells that for sixty which costs him but one; now Salt being a thing of universal use to all degrees of men, and scarce more to the poor then the rich, it seems to be of the same effect with the simplest. Poll-money abovementioned, in case all men spent equally or it, or if men be forced to take it whether they spend it or not, as in some places they are. But if men spend or eat Salt unequally, as they commonly do, nor are bound to take or pay for more then they spend, then is no other than an accumulative Excize, especially if the salt be all of one uniform goodness, otherwise it is a distinct species of Leavy, viz. a monopoly. 3. The use or pretence of instituting a Monopoly is, First, Right of Invention; forasmuch as the Laws do reward Inventions, by granting them a Monopoly of them for a certain; (as here in England for fourteen years) for thereby the Inventor is rewarded more or less according to the acceptance which his Inventory findes amongst men. Where note by the way, that few new Inventions were ever rewarded by a Monopoly; for although the Inventor oftentimes drunk with opinion of his own merit, thinks all the world will invade and incroach upon him, yet I have observed, that the
Chapter 11
Of Monopolies and Offices
Monopoly (as the word signifies) is the sole selling power, which whosoever hath can vend the commodity whereupon he hath this power, either qualified as himself pleases, or at what price he pleaseth, or both, within the limits of his Commission. 2. The great example of a Monopoly is the King of France his Gabel upon Salt, whereby he sells that for sixty which costs him but one; now Salt being a thing of universal use to all degrees of men, and scarce more to the poor then the rich, it seems to be of the same effect with the simplest. Poll-money abovementioned, in case all men spent equally or it, or if men be forced to take it whether they spend it or not, as in some places they are. But if men spend or eat Salt unequally, as they commonly do, nor are bound to take or pay for more then they spend, then is no other than an accumulative Excize, especially if the salt be all of one uniform goodness, otherwise it is a distinct species of Leavy, viz. a monopoly. 3. The use or pretence of instituting a Monopoly is, First, Right of Invention; forasmuch as the Laws do reward Inventions, by granting them a Monopoly of them for a certain; (as here in England for fourteen years) for thereby the Inventor is rewarded more or less according to the acceptance which his Inventory findes amongst men. Where note by the way, that few new Inventions were ever rewarded by a Monopoly; for although the Inventor oftentimes drunk with opinion of his own merit, thinks all the world will invade and incroach upon him, yet I have observed, that the